The Choice
by Eva Star
Summary: *sigh* In case you don't know, this will contain spoilers. The truth about what happened with Inuyasha, Kikyo, and Naraku. Some of the How's and Why's explained.


Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, or any of the other characters mentioned. I simply strive to honor Takahashi-sama, from who's mind sprang forth such wonderful stories.  
  
The Choice  
  
The night was silent and cool. Sango, Miroku, Shippou and Kaede were soundly sleeping. Kagome was sleeping fitfully, muttering words that meant little to him. "Exam.....test....homework." Despite the difference she was so like Kikyo it was painful. Standing up, he left the house. He needed to think.  
  
It was as if he'd seen her yesterday, bleeding, angry, full of hate, but still beautiful. And yet to have heard Kaede-baba say that she'd been dead for fifty years, that had hurt like hell. But she wasn't dead, not anymore. She had been remade, thanks to a psychotic witch, Urusue, and now all that was left was her pure hatred of him. That and the knowledge that Kagome truly was the reincarnation of the woman he had loved, tore his heart in two.  
  
From what he had been able to figure out, from Naraku, Naraku's Onigumo detachment named Musou, and even Kikyo herself, he had a pretty accurate idea of what had happened, when his life had changed forever in the space of what seemed no more than an hour.  
  
It had been a beautiful late-spring day, the grasses waving in the warm breeze, the birds singing, and he had finally come to his decision.  
  
"If you want to become human," Kikyo had said, "meet me in the meadow near the god-tree." He'd agonized over that decision; his powers as a hanyou, or his love for the lonely miko. Kikyo had won.  
  
As he walked to the meadow, he heard the unmistakable zing of an arrow through the air. His superior reflexes allowed him to dodge it, and its two brothers, as they impaled themselves in the tree he had been near to. He turned around, his eyes widening in shock as Kikyo readied another arrow in her bow.  
  
"Die! Inuyasha!" she screamed and let go. He'd dodged her, and all her arrows. When he'd lost her he decided that since fate despised him, he'd use the Shikon no Tama after all. To become a youkai. He'd gone to attack the village.  
  
It had been easy, for the villager's reflexes weren't as quick as their miko's. The musk used to protect the Shikon no Tama from his kind didn't affect him right away, so he was able to grab the jewel and run.  
  
Somehow Kikyo had found him by the god-tree, and for some reason she was bleeding. When had that happened? His memory found no answer.  
  
"Inuyasha!" she cried, and he was pierced to the tree. He couldn't have dodged arrows forever, he knew, and this one finally caught him.  
  
"H- how could you?" he asked, as he watched the Shikon no Tama slip out of his fingers and land on the ground. His vision blurred, and the sealing sleep took over. Where had it gone wrong? When had Kikyo's love for him crossed over into eternal madness and hate? It was said that the line between love and hate was thin and easily crossed. Kikyo hadn't killed him, not truly, for that was love, but she had died with pain and anger towards him, and that was hate.  
  
From what Musou said, and Naraku, his eternal enemy, the thief Onigumo was entirely to blame.  
  
In his desire to see the Shikon no Tama defiled, Onigumo allowed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Youkai into his body. But there had been a short period when neither Onigumo, the man, or Naraku, the hanyou, had been in control of this new entity. The only collective desires in the Youkai that joined together were the desires to kill Kikyo, and to partake of Onigumo's juicy, evil soul.  
  
So the Youkai had transformed into the appearance of Inuyasha and had attacked Kikyo when she was arriving at the meeting place. She had been early. The new entity, seeing that the Shikon no Tama was not defiled yet, it decided to take the jewel back to its resting place, for a new part of the plan.  
  
Transforming into Kikyo the entity had attacked Inuyasha with all the hatred of Onigumo, the man who had dreamed of carrying out base desires with the miko. And the hanyou had fallen for it. Now the plan rested entirely on the miko's will to live.  
  
Whatever Onigumo had thought about her desire to survive was wrong. Her wish to see the jewel transformed into nothing but a beautiful powerless bead was worth more to her then her life. She would not defile the jewel and so allowed herself to die instead of calling upon the Shikon no Tama to let her live. But the pain of Inuyasha's betrayal stained her soul as she carried the Shikon no Tama into her next life.  
  
Then Kagome had awoken him, and the anger with which he had slept revived full force. He had thought her as Kikyo for she smelled the same. Yet when she had unsealed him, and his first instinct of protecting the woman he loved taken care of, his anger needed an outlet.  
  
Now he was grateful she had tripped and he hadn't killed her. Kagome was special to him in many ways, and she had begun to drive the loneliness away from his heart. It had been her who had become his friend, and helped him allow Shippou, Sango, and Miroku as his friends and companions. It had been through her that he had learned how to trust.  
  
"Kikyo, where are you now?" he asked the un-answering moon. The sphere was almost gone, in two, no, three days he'd transform into his human self again, and unable to protect any of his friends in his new-found life. He had to find Kikyo on one of their excursions for Shikon shards, he knew she wasn't ever too far.  
  
Somehow he'd save her, for he still loved her even now. He loved Kagome too, it was just....she wasn't Kikyo. Kagome was brash and bold and rather annoying at times, but she'd always been there for him ever since they met. But Kikyo was Kikyo, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't see that woman in Kagome. "Inuyasha?" Kagome's voice came from the ground. He looked down and his breath caught. Since their last battle, Kagome's school uniform had been damaged, and she hadn't fixed it yet. So she borrowed one of Kaede's kimono's to sleep in. With her hair down and the kimono around her, she looked so much like Kikyo.  
  
"Baka, can't you sleep?" he answered in a grumpy voice. He jumped down and stood looking at her. He knew Kagome wasn't fooled by his grumpy attitude, but he couldn't help it. He just was the way he was.  
  
"I just was wondering where you were is all." Kagome said. She smiled and began to walk back to Kaede's house. "Get some sleep alright?"  
  
"Kagome...." Inuyasha started, she turned to face him, "are you really happy being with me even though I need to find Kikyo?" A small flicker of pain flashed across her face then it was gone, replaced by a smile so beautiful his heart almost melted.  
  
"Of course, didn't I tell you I was?" she answered. He just needed to know for sure.  
  
"Really?" he asked, his voice sounding very young.  
  
"Inuyasha, I, you and I, well, I'm really happy when I'm with you," Kagome stammered, "more so then Hojo-kun, or Kouga" -he bristled at the mention of the wolf youkai- "and I wouldn't trade this life for anything." She turned and walked quickly into the house before he could answer.  
  
He leaped back into the tree again and looked at the moon.  
  
"Kikyo," he said, "I'll find you and save you soon."  
  
When it came down to it, he wondered, who would he pick? He looked up into the sky, asking the moon or the stars to answer. Kikyo or Kagome? He fell asleep in the tree, and morning came up over the mountains. 


End file.
